After completing my freshman year at LSU, I received an internship at Baker Hughes. I got to witness my first drilling operation first hand and first hand as an open hole fishing intern. Despite the 100-degree summer days trapped in FRCs and the lingering smell of oil-based sludge permeating everything, I quickly became obsessed with the drilling side of the industry. Drilling engineering offers the thrill of continuous operations and long hours and requires the engineer to remain adaptive and focused during stressful operations. While it is rare to find a drilling engineer with a university education, I believe that with the rapid advancements in areas such as managed pressure drilling or the automation of drilling operations, it would be valuable to continue my education and deepen my knowledge of these highly complicated operations. esoteric subsets of drilling technology development. While attending graduate school might help develop my technical knowledge, it is important that I choose the right school. According to a recent survey of industry specialists, the top three petroleum engineering graduate schools in the world are the University of Texas, Texas A&M, and the Colorado School of Mines (“Top Petroleum”), respectively. This is why I chose to apply to these three schools in addition to LSU I am currently planning to pursue a thesis based MPE which will allow me to have the option of entering the workforce after earning my master's degree or continuing with a doctorate.